Transportation Blog

NYC adopts bike-share program, will Dallas be next?

Following in the path of London, Paris and other super cities, New York City announced Wednesday afternoon that it has selected a partner to manage its new bike-sharing program, which will debut next summer. (AP Photo: Images of bikes available during the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, where a temporary bike-share program was initiated.)

The 2011 Dallas Bike Plan, approved in June by the Dallas City Council to mixed reviews, calls for just such a program, with a half-dozen bike centers located in downtown, he said. Private firms willing to operate a bike share program have already visited him, and interest is strong.

But first, he said, Dallas has to implement the first stages of the bike plan — which would add hundreds of miles of bike lanes — so that those who want to use the bikes, or use their own, can do so safely and have plenty of places to go.

“We have to really have the bicycle infrastructure in place before we can offer that program of bicycle sharing,” Kalhammer said. “One has to come before the other.”

Most importantly, the city is looking for about $500,000 in grant money to complete the Central Core Connector, a series of on-street improvements central Dallas that planners hope will make bicycling easier and safer for residents and tourists from Uptown to Deep Ellum, downtown and Oak Cliff.

Other improvements are also planned, including two early projects in Oak Cliff. One would change North Davis Street from its current three lanes — counting a parking lane — in both directions to a new bike-friendly orientation. The new street should within a year or so have an eight-foot parking lane, a one-foot buffer, a five-foot-wide striped bike lanes and an 11-foot vehicle lane — in each direction. Plus, there will be a single turning lane in the middle, according to Kalhammer.

Another project, underway now, will add some bike lanes and some shared lines to Mary Cliff Road in North Oak Cliff. Kalhammer said it was “just coincidence” that two of the earliest projects to implement elements of the Bike Plan were both in Oak Cliff.

Those kinds of improvements are necessary before the city can launch a bike share program, he said. But he said the idea is in reach, and could be implemented within two or three years.

How would the city’s bike share program work?

The bike plan envisions two possible scenarios. One would involve bringing in a firm, as New York has done, to manage the program in return for the right to collect fees from users. The monthly fee — pledged in NYC to be less than a monthly transit pass — would cover unlimited 24/7 access to, in New York’s case, the 10,000 bikes stationed throughout the city.

In Dallas, though, the program would start smaller, perhaps with about a half-dozen bike stations in downtown, though the plans call for expanding service to Deep Ellum and Oak Cliff over time.

The other scenario would involve the city managing the program.

Meanwhile, wear your helmets.

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Transportation writer Brandon Formby and editorial writer Rodger Jones cover the subject from tollways to traffic, roads to rail. They invite tips and feedback from decision-makers and commuters alike.